Based on the premise that the true Home of the Groove, at least on the North American landmass, is the irreplaceable musical and cultural nexus, New Orleans, Louisiana and environs, this audioblog features rare, hard to find, often forgotten, vintage New Orleans-related R&B and funk records with commentary. Some general knowledge of N.O. music is helpful here, but not required to get your groove on.

About Me

I currently host a weekly show, "Funkify Your Life", on KRVS 88.7 FM in Lafayette which includes music covered on HOTG and more. You can listen-in live Thursdays at 1:00 PM or to the rebroadcast Fridays at 9:00 PM, or via podcasts at the station website . I am a former resident of Memphis, TN, where I did a weekly radio show called "New Orleans: Under the Influence" from 1988 to 2004 on WEVL 89.9 FM. I've been collecting and researching this kind of music (& others) even longer.

HOTG Heads Up

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Until further notice, the separate streaming site, HOTG Internet Radio, is no longer operational, as the licensing provider went under. I hope to re-active streaming of my archives at the site at some point, and will post notice on the main page at the time.
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section is now moderated. Legitimate comments will be posted after review. Thanks for your understanding...and patience. NOTE:
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QUOTES OF NOTE:
"New Orleans is of such key importance to American music because historical factors combined to make it the strongest center of
African musical practice in the United States, and, cliches aside, that practice really did travel up the Mississippi and did
spread overland." - Ned Sublette, from Cuba And Its Music

"I heard a group called Huey Smith & the Clowns, out of New Orleans. Now this is where funk was really created! That's where funk originated....
I couldn't understand how to do it, so this drummer from Huey Smith's band [Hungry Williams] showed me how to play [it]." - Clayton Fillyau,
drummer for Etta James and James Brown, on the origins of the 'James Brown Beat', in The Great Drummers Of R&B, Funk & Soul, interviewed by Jim Payne.

"A lot of those New Orleans drummers would come through, and I got a lot of stuff from those guys....Tenoo [Coleman] was...as funky as any of them.....
I learned some of that funk by listening to Tenoo." - John 'Jabo'Starks, drummer for Bobby Bland and James Brown, to Jim Payne as above.

"At the risk of sounding egotistical, a lot of the broken up stuff that these guys are playing now stems from the stuff that I had started doing." -
Earl Palmer, on his early days drumming with Dave Bartholomew's band, to Jim Payne, as above.

"With funk, it's almost more what you don't play than what you do play. I like those long silences between riffs,
I like the empty spaces. Those empty spaces, when you stop and let the groove wash all over you, make the
difference between fake funk and real funk." -Art Neville in The Brothers Neville

"Thank the good Lord for the funk musicians." -Jon Cleary ("Pin Your Spin")

"Without New Orleans, there would be no America." -Keith Frazier, Rebirth Brass Band, 2005.

"....don't be fooled. This city is deeply wounded. I'd say it's like an amputee
with phantom memory." -David Freedman, WWOZ, post-Katrina.

"If there was no New Orleans, America would just be a bunch of free people dying of boredom."
-Judy Deck, in an e-mail to Chris Rose at the Times-Picayune

"I'm not finished!" - Wardell Quezergue's final comment of the night after accepting the 2008 Best of the Beat
Lifetime Achievement In Music Award from Offbeat

"I discovered New Orleans along the way, and that made a big difference - It loosened me up." - Richie Hayward, the late drummer for Little Feat.

October 06, 2005

Turnin' and Burnin' (Replay)

"Wheel Of Fire" (Allen Toussaint)Etta James, from Changes, T-Electric, 1980Hear it on HOTG Internet Radio

Here’s another of my features from October, 2004, the frist month of HOTG. Again, I have revised what I wrote. I’ll have something “new”, but still old school, up later this weekend.

Allen Toussaintproduced and arranged the decidedly funky album, Changes, forEtta James. As I recall, one of the the engineers on the sessions, Danny Jones, told me in an interview I did with him back in the 1990’s that the LP was recorded over a fairly long period of time [between 1978 and 1980]. Warner Bros started the project and then withdrew, followed by RCA in 1979,, before MCA’s T-Electric put it out in 1980. "Wheel of Fire" is one of four Toussaint compositions appearing on the disk. The atmospheric, sultry slow burn of the verses with a well-turned bridge build-up, and the fact that no one else seems to have done this Toussaint gem, are the reasons I originally picked it out.

Changes deserves to be reissued. Etta does soulful and gritty justice to not only the tunes by Toussaint (the others being “Don’t Stop”, “Night People”, and “With You In Mind”), but to those penned by Willie Hutch (the fonky “Mean Mother” and “Donkey”), Carol King (the title track), and obscure NOLA songwriter, Jimmy Jules, a/k/a Charlie Julien (another slow smoker, “Night By Night”). And, as with other recordings done at Sea-Saint during Toussaint's peak production years, the session players are among the HOTG's funky finest: Herman Ernest, III (drums); Tony Broussard (bass); Leo Nocentelli and Steve Hughes (guitar); Sam Henry, Robert Dabon and Toussaint (keyboards); and Ken "Afro" Williams on percussion. You might recognize Hughes, Dabon, and Williams as members of Chocolate Milk. On this cut, Toussaint is on the piano, Nocentelli on wah lead' [and an uncredited Johnny Vidacovich played drums on this an two other numbers, according to Jones, who I interviewed again in 2011].

I had been looking for this album for a while around Memphis back in late 1980’s with no luck. When I went back to New Orleans next, I stopped into one of my favorite vinyl haunts, Record Ron’s, on lower Decatur in the Quarter. As I was browsing the bins I heard Etta James' voice coming through the speakers, singing something decidedly funky. As the record cuts played on, she started in on “Night People”; and I went up and asked Ron if that was her Changes LP. He said, “Yeah, I pulled it out because a guy had called for it today and never showed up.” Whoever that guy was, sorry, I bought it on the spot – about ten bucks, I think, for the only copy in the store. Ron eventually had a couple of locations in the Quarter and one Uptown; but, sadly, he died in the 1990’s and the store stock, including his huge lunchbox collection, was sold off on eBay I heard.

I highly recommend your seeking this record out, too. You can still get a copy for around what I paid, looks like.

6 Comments:

I got my copy of this record at "Golden Oldies on Dumaine", another awesome, and sadly now defunct, record shop in the Quarter sometime in the early eighties.

At the time I was buying it for my girlfriend who was on a "I simply must have everything Etta James ever recorded!" thing...the fact that it was a SANSU production was welcome lagniappe for yours truly!

Like you said, I can't believe it's not on CD yet, but look how long it took to get records like "Rejuvenation" and "Fiyo on the Bayou"re-issued. Must be a Sehorn thing. Thanks!

Yeah, I made it to Golden Oldies back in the day. Didn't remember the name until you mentioned it, Red. I really hope the current Quarter shops, such as Magic Bus and Louisiana Music factory can stay in business post-Katrina. I can't wait to go back and support 'em.

The thing I like about physically going out and searching for records is that finding one almost always has a story that comes with it, moreso than doing an online search and transaction. Y'all need to support those few quirky little (and big) vinyl shops that still exist out in the world, even if they charge a few bucks more. To my mind, collecting records isn't quite the same if you don't do some down and dirty digging.

Hey Dan - Jason from the Funk Files here. Sorry it's been so long, been a crazy couple of months as you know. My band is playing a Katrina benefit in New York on 10/21. Can you post it on the blog at some point? Here's the details:

Sure, reaper, no problem. I'll move your info uptop soon. I knew you were a drummer, but didn't know you were in Afroskull. Guess I didn't do my homework, or you need a press agent! Keep it funky.Glad to hear from you again.